I have some personal theories though about what leads to differentials in results.

It comes from a personal anecdote. In my high school and early college years, I was heavily surrounded by gay and bisexual friends. A majority of the homosexuals I encountered I quite liked.

When I took that test, I came out with a highly developed preference for homosexuals over heterosexuals.

However, several years later, my social circle has much fewer homosexuals, and of those that are, I am not as fond of them as I was my previous gay friends.

When I took the test, I came out with a distinct bias towards heterosexuals.

I think the score differential may be highly influenced by not simply overall social stereotypes (ex: growing up in a community of ex-Confederates) but individual specific in-group/out-group dynamics.

By this, I mean your score may be at least partially dependent on, say, how many black people you interact with on a daily basis and how much of that interaction is positive. Note that it is NOT dependent on YOUR race, only the composition of your social circle.

It could also be that, in the absence of anyone representing the group in question (blacks, homosexuals), we revert to social stereotypes since we have no other information to go by.

I have some personal theories though about what leads to differentials in results.

It comes from a personal anecdote. In my high school and early college years, I was heavily surrounded by gay and bisexual friends. A majority of the homosexuals I encountered I quite liked.

When I took that test, I came out with a highly developed preference for homosexuals over heterosexuals.

However, several years later, my social circle has much fewer homosexuals, and of those that are, I am not as fond of them as I was my previous gay friends.

When I took the test, I came out with a distinct bias towards heterosexuals.

I think the score differential may be highly influenced by not simply overall social stereotypes (ex: growing up in a community of ex-Confederates) but individual specific in-group/out-group dynamics.

By this, I mean your score may be at least partially dependent on, say, how many black people you interact with on a daily basis and how much of that interaction is positive. Note that it is NOT dependent on YOUR race, only the composition of your social circle.

It could also be that, in the absence of anyone representing the group in question (blacks, homosexuals), we revert to social stereotypes since we have no other information to go by.

That's sounds like a pretty sensible explanation.I don't have ANY black friends in real life tough, is the one thing...

Apparently, I slightly associate Black Americans with weapons and White Americans with harmless objects. Of course, the fact that I was first asked to associate white with harmless probably had something to do with it, as well as the fact that every time I saw the ice cream cone, I thought it was some sort of stabbing device.

I have some personal theories though about what leads to differentials in results.

It comes from a personal anecdote. In my high school and early college years, I was heavily surrounded by gay and bisexual friends. A majority of the homosexuals I encountered I quite liked.

When I took that test, I came out with a highly developed preference for homosexuals over heterosexuals.

However, several years later, my social circle has much fewer homosexuals, and of those that are, I am not as fond of them as I was my previous gay friends.

When I took the test, I came out with a distinct bias towards heterosexuals.

I think the score differential may be highly influenced by not simply overall social stereotypes (ex: growing up in a community of ex-Confederates) but individual specific in-group/out-group dynamics.

By this, I mean your score may be at least partially dependent on, say, how many black people you interact with on a daily basis and how much of that interaction is positive. Note that it is NOT dependent on YOUR race, only the composition of your social circle.

It could also be that, in the absence of anyone representing the group in question (blacks, homosexuals), we revert to social stereotypes since we have no other information to go by.

That's sounds like a pretty sensible explanation.I don't have ANY black friends in real life tough, is the one thing...

Then it wouldn't be surprising if you implicitly favored whites over blacks.

Granted, that's not exactly a revolutionary prediction. What WOULD be interesting is to see how black respondents with varying levels of white friends respond. Unfortunately, the site doesn't gather that kind of data.

At 3/31/2012 12:17:21 AM, Lickdafoot wrote:I took the sexual preference one and the race one twice and got completely different results each time.

Sexual preference:The first time I got slight preference to straight peopleThe second time I got moderate preference to gay people

Race:The first time I got moderate preference to black peopleThe second time I got moderate preference to white people

I only took the religion one once cause it was too long. I got christianity first, buddhism & muslim tied, and judaism last.

I think it is bs to be honest. O.o Otherwise it would have been more consistent.

The test isn't BS, though like all psychological tests, it's predictive power comes from massive studies as opposed to individual results.

If, for instance, you had a television on in the background while taking the test, different levels of noise and attention might have lead to different reaction times on the two tests even though you never touched the television.

If you take the test several times, you'll find a consistent range. One problem is that the implicit association site gives you general results instead of numerical results.

At 3/31/2012 12:17:21 AM, Lickdafoot wrote:I took the sexual preference one and the race one twice and got completely different results each time.

Sexual preference:The first time I got slight preference to straight peopleThe second time I got moderate preference to gay people

Race:The first time I got moderate preference to black peopleThe second time I got moderate preference to white people

I only took the religion one once cause it was too long. I got christianity first, buddhism & muslim tied, and judaism last.

I think it is bs to be honest. O.o Otherwise it would have been more consistent.

The test isn't BS, though like all psychological tests, it's predictive power comes from massive studies as opposed to individual results.

If, for instance, you had a television on in the background while taking the test, different levels of noise and attention might have lead to different reaction times on the two tests even though you never touched the television.

If you take the test several times, you'll find a consistent range. One problem is that the implicit association site gives you general results instead of numerical results.

That is, let's say you can get a score from 0 to 10 where 0 means heavy preference for black people and 10 means heavy preference for white people. 5 means neutral.

If the average human range on tests is 0.4, then the test will be quite accurate if you give it to someone who scores between a 9 and a 9.4 or 1 and 1.4.

However, if your true score is, say, 5.2, then if you take that test several times, you'll land both above and below the cut off for "preference for black" versus 'preference for whites."

There's a related problem when you try to interpret a Myers-Briggs. Basically anything where the resulting distribution is a normal curve and a "cut-off" point exists in the middle. Most websites only say "I or E" so if you're near the cut-off, you'll get weird results after multiple trials.

At 3/31/2012 12:17:21 AM, Lickdafoot wrote:I took the sexual preference one and the race one twice and got completely different results each time.

Sexual preference:The first time I got slight preference to straight peopleThe second time I got moderate preference to gay people

Race:The first time I got moderate preference to black peopleThe second time I got moderate preference to white people

I only took the religion one once cause it was too long. I got christianity first, buddhism & muslim tied, and judaism last.

I think it is bs to be honest. O.o Otherwise it would have been more consistent.

The test isn't BS, though like all psychological tests, it's predictive power comes from massive studies as opposed to individual results.

If, for instance, you had a television on in the background while taking the test, different levels of noise and attention might have lead to different reaction times on the two tests even though you never touched the television.

If you take the test several times, you'll find a consistent range. One problem is that the implicit association site gives you general results instead of numerical results.

That is, let's say you can get a score from 0 to 10 where 0 means heavy preference for black people and 10 means heavy preference for white people. 5 means neutral.

If the average human range on tests is 0.4, then the test will be quite accurate if you give it to someone who scores between a 9 and a 9.4 or 1 and 1.4.

However, if your true score is, say, 5.2, then if you take that test several times, you'll land both above and below the cut off for "preference for black" versus 'preference for whites."

There's a related problem when you try to interpret a Myers-Briggs. Basically anything where the resulting distribution is a normal curve and a "cut-off" point exists in the middle. Most websites only say "I or E" so if you're near the cut-off, you'll get weird results after multiple trials.

i think there are too many other factors that come into play to really say that this is your preferred inclination. Maybe you are right to say that it is the scope and length of the test that gives varied results.

There is a myers-briggs, i think the first link on google search, that gives you numerical values. but i have a gripe with that one because the questions are rather one-dimensional and you can only answer "yes" or "no"

I took the White and Black tests and the European American vs Asian American tests a while ago. I don't remember the exact scores but I got pretty much in the middle for both i.e. I prefer Whites and Blacks equally and consider European Americans and Asian Americans equally as Americans. I doubt such a test is accurate as there are too many variables involved but I agree with the results so I am not entirely sure it is useless. I'll do another one and get back with the scores while it is still fresh in my mind.

I got a moderate preference for straight people over compared to gay people.

I found it funny how I was able to change my thought patterns to make the test easier for myself. For example when I had to group "Straight and Good" vs. "Homosexual andBad", I was like alright, just think like sadolite and it made it easier.

Am I missing something here? It's forcing me to choose a certain way by making me equate things like (homosexuals, blacks) as "bad." If I select the "I" key it gives me an X. Why is it pigeonholing me to answer a certain way?

At 3/31/2012 8:59:21 AM, PARADIGM_L0ST wrote:Am I missing something here? It's forcing me to choose a certain way by making me equate things like (homosexuals, blacks) as "bad." If I select the "I" key it gives me an X. Why is it pigeonholing me to answer a certain way?

It reverses the way in which it is arranged the second time around. The point is to test if you associate "homosexuality" with "bad" or with "good".

At 3/31/2012 8:59:21 AM, PARADIGM_L0ST wrote:Am I missing something here? It's forcing me to choose a certain way by making me equate things like (homosexuals, blacks) as "bad." If I select the "I" key it gives me an X. Why is it pigeonholing me to answer a certain way?

It reverses the way in which it is arranged the second time around. The point is to test if you associate "homosexuality" with "bad" or with "good".:

At 3/31/2012 8:59:21 AM, PARADIGM_L0ST wrote:Am I missing something here? It's forcing me to choose a certain way by making me equate things like (homosexuals, blacks) as "bad." If I select the "I" key it gives me an X. Why is it pigeonholing me to answer a certain way?

It reverses the way in which it is arranged the second time around. The point is to test if you associate "homosexuality" with "bad" or with "good".:

What if you are neutral on it?

Then your split-second reaction times between associating a good word and bad word with homosexuals will be indistinguishable.

I've only encountered one person who ever read as "neutral" on a racial implicit association test. Quite an interesting girl (cancer in one leg, youngest of four, etc).

At 3/31/2012 4:13:57 AM, darkkermit wrote:I got a moderate preference for straight people over compared to gay people.

I found it funny how I was able to change my thought patterns to make the test easier for myself. For example when I had to group "Straight and Good" vs. "Homosexual andBad", I was like alright, just think like sadolite and it made it easier.